Another satisfied customer.
Here is a link,
http://forums.av123.com/showthread.php?t=43578
but I am sure this post will be gone soon so I copied it.
Mark always makes it right.
Here's what MLS told steveshifi as for the reasons his replacements were delayed back in 12/24/08:
Dear
Greeting… and Happy Holidays from all of us at av123.
I wanted to send along a very personal note of apology for the delay in your Rosewood MFW-15 order. I felt a few short words were in order – so please forgive the intrusion on your Holiday Season. Allow me to take a this moment with you…
As I have mentioned in my letter to folks waiting on Rocket deliveries… things have not been 100% well in China during this year. The Chinese are facing tremendous hurdles in all areas of their lives. Simple items like food have become more and more expensive – and challenges are everywhere these days in our factories that we utilize in Southern China and beyond. Raw materials have skyrocketed. Copper alone has gone up over 30% this year alone. Many of our vendors have been forced to cut staff and operating hours in response to the meltdown taking place in our global economy.
We have tried to maintain a greater (read tighter) linkage with our outside procurement manager we have been using in China during this year – but even he has been faced with INCREDIBLE challenges in managing our growth and our needs. The current MFW-15 Rosewood shipment has been delayed – but for reasons that I hope you’ll all join in and actually agree with me about.
The last MFW-15 shipment (Rosewood) upset me greatly. The packing materials used were really sub-standard in my humble opinion – and our vendor just seemed to want to kick and scream about my complaints, rather than help to fix it. In fact, they complained SO MUCH – that I decided to pull the PO and do something I swore I would not do.
For some time I have been aware of a particular vendor that builds for simply some of the best companies the world has ever known. They build a variety of speakers and subs – many of which are on Stereophile’s Class A rating list – and the same is true for The Absolute Sound Recommended Lists. I know this company so well as this was where the first two shipments of Rockets actually came from some 8 + years ago – and the owner is a dear and very personal friend.
Their prices are roughly 50% more (no joke) than our current vendor – but this company goes WAY above and beyond when it comes to the quality of products that they can (and do) deliver… I remember seeing all of the early Revel products being made there and marveling at the level of fit and finish. These guys REALLY know how to do “it” – and they are not afraid to charge for “it”… J
I had requested some photos many weeks ago from our current vendor – and they kept ignoring me. It’s not that what they made was bad (in fact – what passed muster was quite good), but all of the complaints we registered about some of the workmanship (on the bad ones) and the shipping materials used were met with a jaundiced eye – and complete disregard for what we needed to do to improve. I found that completely unacceptable.
I therefore decided to move the PO to this other company as I KNOW what they will give us will pass any and all tests… In doing this I have certainly throw off all of the delivery timetables – but I felt I was left with little choice… The current run found me rejecting near to 15% of the goods themselves – plus we had the shipping issues to boot. In all – it looks like I will be replacing near to 25% of that run… Not fair to all of you – and not fair to av123 as well. Lest we forget that when something like this goes bad – the “cost” exceeds $260 dollars to replace a bad sub for the FREIGHT ALONE… The numbers get pretty large when they are multiplied out…
So – what does it all mean? It means that those waiting for MFW-15’s in Rosewood will now see these until the week of March 9th. These will ship before Chinese New Year (3rd week for January)… but I felt I better front end load some extra “fudge factor” just to be sure…
I sincerely wish to apologize to all of you effected by this delay. We will endeavor to move the goods as quickly as possible from the POE (port of entry) to Denver and then on to Longmont – and then to all of you…
I’d like to express in clear terms that there was no way we could have avoided this – lest we all get punished for poor quality or poorer still packing materials. I was just not willing to take that risk – now knowing what I know…
Please accept this apology as from our collective hearts. We know that The Season can bring undue stress in many cases – and our purpose is to deliver the music and film system of your dreams. To that end we will not let you down – and we do most sincerely apologize for this brief and unavoidable delay…
Most Humbly…
Happy Holidays…
Mark L. Schifter
Thanks!
I tell you, there are scores if not hundreds of people with some kind of a story like this. Each one that I read about outright sickens and disgusts me. God, I hope there's no plea deal for this SOB. I hope he's sentenced and faces more than the minimum prison time for the felony charges. I hope that every one of these poor b@stards contacts the State Attorney General to see what can be done to get their monies back. I hope their phucking license to operate a business in the state of Colorado is revoked and I'm going to see just how that can be done and if I get something that looks promising, I'm going to see if the mods will allow a sticky on that matter so it doesn't get buried in this thread.
I hold Mark ultimately responsible for all this, but I also hold the core people who make up AV451 also responsible. That's his wife, Lynn as well as his step-daughter Suzanne. You can't tell me Suzy, whose name is on all the corporate papers and has been referred to as the Corporate Vice President, CFO, or any other phucking title wasn't aware of all these shenanigans. Same goes for his wife.
So, Darryl, if you're reading this, you're right! I don't care what happens to his family. It's a family of stinking, cheese eating rats. Let them lose their houses, their savings, their everything and wind up on the streets living in apartments or shelters and flipping burgers for the rest of their lives. You feel so bad for them, take them into your own GD house and you can show mercry for them because I sure as hell don't. But I'm not heartless Darryl. I hope they all live long lives and I hope each day of their long lives is faced with the knowledge that they're in the predicament where they are because of their actions and inactions.
